Everyone has Peters restructuring his contract. Just don't see it happening.
1, It takes 2 willing parties.
2, The Eagles. Will take a bigger cap hit later.
3, the only 2 reasons a player renegotiates is to get more money upfront or an extension neither of which I would be willing to do for Peters.
I just don't get it. He isn't going to play for less and he isn't worried about getting cut.
Where's his incentive for doing this?

Take this into consideration:

Jason Peters remaining contract is basically worth two years, $20.75m.

His base salary in 2013 will be 10.4m, while he will also receive a $350k work-out bonus. His 2013 "cap number" will be 10.75m as a result. None of it is guaranteed. $0 Dead Money if Cut.

His base salary in 2014 will be 9.65m, while he will also receive a $350k work-out bonus. His 2014 "cap number" will be 10.0m as a result. None of it is guaranteed. $0 Dead Money if Cut.

Jason Peters is coming off of tearing his achilles tendon twice in the span of a few weeks. He is not guaranteed to be healthy in 2013. He was paid a base salary in 2012 of $7.9m for being on IR

The Eagles could, theoretically, offer Jason Peters a $3m singing bonus (up-front money that can be spread over the two seasons as an equal salary cap hit), while also converting his remaining two $350k work-out bonuses into that signing bonus, for a total of $3.7m to be paid up-front.
His $10.4m base salary would be reduced to $6.7m, while keeping his 2014 base salary at the original $9.65m. As an incentive, the Eagles could also choose to guarantee a portion of his 2013 salary, regardless if he plays a single down, or not, something along the lines of $3m. This will have no real effect upon his salary cap number, unless he is released in 2013 AFTER re-signing this proposed extension.

His new contract (actual pay) would look something like:
2013: $6.7m base salary + $3.7m signing bonus = $10.4m total money paid ($350k less than his 2013 total money paid of $10.75m) with $3 million guaranteed for injury.
2014: $9.65m base salary ($350k less than his 2014 total paid money of $10m) with no guaranteed salary.

Basically, Jason Peters would be getting a $3.7 million dollar check cut to him up-front, and a basic guarantee that he will be on the 2013 Eagles roster. His actual "real money" paid from the Eagles would only be $750k less over the two years of the contract, but that would pretty much be off-set by providing Peters with cash up front, and basic job security for 2013. It's pretty much a win-win contract restructuring. Peters is basically guaranteed zero money in 2013 or 2014 under his current contract, and I'm pretty positive that this is a win-win for both parties involved. Anytime a football player is given a large check, and a guaranteed season, he's definitely winning. If said-player is also coming off tearing his achilles tendon twice in one off-season, it's a no-brainer.

And it only took me about 20 minutes to put this down on paper. The Eagles interviewed friggin Chip Kelly for 9 hours. I'm sure they can spend two or three to save an additional $2m+ in cap space for 2013.

DP - what are the cap ramifications of trading Cole? Was my analysis correct?

My analysis was that Cole's dead money, if cut is $6.4 million, but carries a cap hit of $4.575 million... So if traded the dead money offset by the cap charge would come to a charge of only $1.8 million...

I am probably wrong, but if you could clarify - it would be very helpful.

Everyone has Peters restructuring his contract. Just don't see it happening.
1, It takes 2 willing parties.
2, The Eagles. Will take a bigger cap hit later.
3, the only 2 reasons a player renegotiates is to get more money upfront or an extension neither of which I would be willing to do for Peters.
I just don't get it. He isn't going to play for less and he isn't worried about getting cut.
Where's his incentive for doing this?

One of my biggest issues with most mocks. Whether its a Nnamdi restructure or a Peters one, players don't just take pay cuts because they got injured or had a down, they take them for more guaranteed/upfront money or more years._________________
^^Kiltman on the sig

Everyone has Peters restructuring his contract. Just don't see it happening.
1, It takes 2 willing parties.
2, The Eagles. Will take a bigger cap hit later.
3, the only 2 reasons a player renegotiates is to get more money upfront or an extension neither of which I would be willing to do for Peters.
I just don't get it. He isn't going to play for less and he isn't worried about getting cut.
Where's his incentive for doing this?

Take this into consideration:

Jason Peters remaining contract is basically worth two years, $20.75m.

His base salary in 2013 will be 10.4m, while he will also receive a $350k work-out bonus. His 2013 "cap number" will be 10.75m as a result. None of it is guaranteed. $0 Dead Money if Cut.

His base salary in 2014 will be 9.65m, while he will also receive a $350k work-out bonus. His 2014 "cap number" will be 10.0m as a result. None of it is guaranteed. $0 Dead Money if Cut.

Jason Peters is coming off of tearing his achilles tendon twice in the span of a few weeks. He is not guaranteed to be healthy in 2013. He was paid a base salary in 2012 of $7.9m for being on IR

The Eagles could, theoretically, offer Jason Peters a $3m singing bonus (up-front money that can be spread over the two seasons as an equal salary cap hit), while also converting his remaining two $350k work-out bonuses into that signing bonus, for a total of $3.7m to be paid up-front.
His $10.4m base salary would be reduced to $6.7m, while keeping his 2014 base salary at the original $9.65m. As an incentive, the Eagles could also choose to guarantee a portion of his 2013 salary, regardless if he plays a single down, or not, something along the lines of $3m. This will have no real effect upon his salary cap number, unless he is released in 2013 AFTER re-signing this proposed extension.

His new contract (actual pay) would look something like:
2013: $6.7m base salary + $3.7m signing bonus = $10.4m total money paid ($350k less than his 2013 total money paid of $10.75m) with $3 million guaranteed for injury.
2014: $9.65m base salary ($350k less than his 2014 total paid money of $10m) with no guaranteed salary.

Basically, Jason Peters would be getting a $3.7 million dollar check cut to him up-front, and a basic guarantee that he will be on the 2013 Eagles roster. His actual "real money" paid from the Eagles would only be $750k less over the two years of the contract, but that would pretty much be off-set by providing Peters with cash up front, and basic job security for 2013. It's pretty much a win-win contract restructuring. Peters is basically guaranteed zero money in 2013 or 2014 under his current contract, and I'm pretty positive that this is a win-win for both parties involved. Anytime a football player is given a large check, and a guaranteed season, he's definitely winning. If said-player is also coming off tearing his achilles tendon twice in one off-season, it's a no-brainer.

And it only took me about 20 minutes to put this down on paper. The Eagles interviewed friggin Chip Kelly for 9 hours. I'm sure they can spend two or three to save an additional $2m+ in cap space for 2013.

You said it yourself. You have no idea what kind of player Peters is going to come back as. Right know you can cut him and not cost this team a dime. Why would you give him "free money" in terms of a signing bonus when you still would take a hit next year, although a small hit, if you were to get rid of him. His contract this season is very affordable. You make a decision as a front office.
1 we are going to draft a LT this season and plug him in, in which case you cut Peters.
2 we are going to let Peters play this season under his contract and if he returns to his all pro form, we will extend his contract 3 years and hopefully he ends his career here.

Reasons why you do this:

1. Only the Eagles & Jason Peters know how he is doing with the rehabilitation part of his injury. The re-structuring of the contract is based on prior knowledge of his rehabilitation. Of course the Eagles wouldn't cut him a check if he wasn't going to be able to play in 2013.

2. Once opening day of the 2013 NFL Season starts, his entire $10.75m salary\work-out bonus count fully against the cap. Why not reduce that cap number by $2.2m while essentially paying the same actual dollar amounts? The Eagles win with $2.2m in cap space. Peters wins with a $3.7m check in his pocket when he signs on the line which is marked with an 'X'.

3. This re-structuring basically has no effect on the 2014 season, as I entirely doubt we let Jason Peters play-out on a 1 year deal if he can be nearly as effective as he was pre-injury. If he's not effective, we cut him with pretty much identical salary-cap savings in 2014 as we would have.

4. If you don't think 2.2m in cap-space is a big deal to the Eagles, why on Earth would they risk a PR catastrophe over $125k in cap savings with the Mike Patterson fiasco after he came down with pneumonia in December? Howie Roseman would pimp his mother if it saved the Eagles $50 cap space per paying customer. Believe this.

DP - what are the cap ramifications of trading Cole? Was my analysis correct?

My analysis was that Cole's dead money, if cut is $6.4 million, but carries a cap hit of $4.575 million... So if traded the dead money offset by the cap charge would come to a charge of only $1.8 million...

I am probably wrong, but if you could clarify - it would be very helpful

Trent Cole signed a 6 year, $59.3m deal ($8m signing bonus, $14.5m guaranteed money) before last season. If the cap figures from eaglescap.com are correct, which they usually are, we would incur $6.4m worth of dead money (4 years of signing bonus pro-ration @ 1.6m/yr) from trading\cutting Trent Cole. Trent Cole's 2013 salary cap number will be his 2013 base salary ($3.5m) + 2013's share of his pro-rated signing bonus (1.6m) for a total of $5.1m, but he also has a workout bonus of $250k, so it raises his 2013 cap number to 5.35m. Essentially, the Eagles would be actually losing $1.05m in "actual" salary cap space by trading\cutting Cole in the current season. His 2013 salary is also fully guaranteed, so I think it makes absolutely zero sense to cut him, and a minuscule amount of sense to trade $6.4m in dead money for a 4th & 6th round draft pick as compensation.

I think moving Trent Cole in 2013 is also highly unlikely due to the sheer amount of "dead money" the Eagles are probably going to incur by purging this roster of Mr. Softee spokespeople like Nnamdi Asomugha & fireman-of-the-year Danny Watkins. For example, this mock draft would have the following dead money counting against the Eagles in 2013:

That's pretty high. It's "Dallas Cowboys\Oakland Raiders dead money" territory. In a realistic sense, the Eagles are probably married to Trent Cole's contract for at least the next two seasons. The post 2014 off-season is really the first "opportunistic" spot to cut\trade Trent Cole, as his salary cap charge will jump from $6.6m in 2014 to $11.625m in 2015.